About

Destructuring.net belongs to Jonathan Vanasco.

##Quick Intro

Hi. My name is Jonathan Vanasco. I live in Brooklyn and do things with computers, words, ideas, and (when I’m lucky…) raw materials. I’m an entrepreneur in the digital space: I created some of the earliest technologies in Social Network portability and syndication, authored multiple patent filings, worked on some online music publishing stuff, consulted on digital and social media strategy for top record labels, political organizations, brands and agencies, etc etc etc.

I work with a handful of NYC startups as an advisor or consultant; I also worth with large corporations too.

– I’ve advised a lot of Major Publishers on Technology and Revenue.
– I led the Technology and Product operations at The Daily Beast (IAC) and did a lot of paperwork for the Newsweek merger. A huge chunk of that was as the CTO & Director of Product @ TheDailyBeast, and then I focused on Product only for the newly formed Newsweek/DailyBeast company.
– I was advisor to Event Tech Labs, and for a while, ran their Product & Engineering too. ETL provides RFID based access control and customer loyalty solutions.
– I helped start ArtWeLove.com as the CTO ; we enable the general public to become collector of significant contemporary artists. Originally we started as an publisher / social network for the Fine Arts community, but pivoted to eCommerce offering exclusive prints from the top emerging artists.
– I fiybded FindMeOn.com ; embroiled in an IP mess and now function as an R&D firm / IP Holding Company due to patent and trademark issues.

I am an active contributor to numerous open source projects, mostly around the Python and Perl languages.

I like to cook for fun, and am obsessed with good Coffee and Wine. My current setup is a cherry-red Expobar Office HX machine, an in-progress PID + custom expansion valve tweak to an Isomac Venus, and a Mazzer Mini grinder. I prefer drip coffee out of a Chemex, and often flip between Vacuum Pot and French Press. I have a moka pot too, but its really for decoration. I used to home-roast on my fire escape, and sometimes I post on CoffeeGeek or Home-Barista. I brew my own Kombucha at home. Sometimes it scares me. Actually, I ferment it… but that doesn’t sound as good. Suffice to say, food is my luxury.

For a few years I was part of the BrewskeBall Competitive Skeeball League in NYC’s East Village. My team was known at times as The Holy Skee, Goatskee (pronounced Goatse.kee), and finally Brewniccula… the alcoholic vampire bunny. I played on the ‘Brass Knuckles’ team in the Brooklyn Kickball league, until we were kicked out for poor attendance and a constant losing streak. In addition to my penchant for ironic sports, I’m always up for some frisbee, soccer or bike riding. I strive to help out local community groups and non-profits whenever I can.

##Education

I graduated from Pomona College ( possibly the happiest and smartest place around , and the guides agree ) in 2000 with a Double Major in Political Science and Media Studies. Most of my academic work was on the intersection of Politics and Media, specifically the use of media as advertising to sell political candidates, policies, and cultural change.

I nearly majored in Studio Art, and was fortunate enough to spend a semester on the East African Coast, where I studied Urban (Street) Art Forms & Methods. I spent far too much time in Mombasa with the greatest artists you’ll never hear of, played nonstop cards and football on Lamu Island, and swam with Dolphins off Zanzibar. I even worked as a tout on a matatu for a day. I once thought about going to Law School, but now I’m leaning towards an MFA or an MBA if I ever return to academia.

##Professional

My interest in the net started in undergad, when I interned at a string of Web 1.0 startups. At Pomona I produced my first personal web project, “The Booty Party” (later named “Campus Cupid”) — the first college-specific, closed crush matching & compatibility website. It was basically a closed network version of ‘secret admirer’, and we let everyone know who their matches were at a big party with a bunch of kegs. And condoms. It is important to be responsible.

I’ve since worked as an online media strategist, cpg branding & advertising consultant, technologist and designer with everyone from major record labels, to media outlets and beauty brands. I’ve designed both hardware and software for kiosks and in-store promotions, and worked on the first generation of RFID enabled retail shelving units which were placed in WalMart stores. A few years ago, I co-wrote a screenplay about Breast Milk and Fads with a very talented director, and have written several equally irreverent shorts since.

In 2005 I left the 9-9 world to focus on my own projects, with a concentration on identity, syndication, and workflow efficiency. With all of my projects, I aim to help consumers and publishers deal with the proliferation of online networks. Every property we’ve developed has been about significantly ahead of the market.

I serve CEO of FindMeOn.com – a company I started in 2005 to offer social network portability, people search, advanced advertising targeting & media buy planning. After three years of hard engineering/architecture work and an advocacy push for open social networks, we found ourselves embroiled in Patent and Trademark infringement issues. Nevertheless we are committed to the core values of Open Source and portability — and continue to devote considerable resources to open projects and standards.
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##Why ‘Destructuring’ ?

I thought Destructuring was another one of those words that some postmodern author imagined. On a whim, I opened some Derrida or Foucault book, flipped to a random page, and chose the least-likely-to-not-be-a-real-word word to where my finger landed. I was *pretty sure* Destructuring wasn’t real: and I was half-right. There is no real word ‘destructuring’, however it does exist as Computer Science term which is popular in the Lisp community ( and growing in JS, from what I’m told ). However… the CompSci definition had little to do with the manner in which the PostModern author used it, so they’re still wrong. I’m just less right. And I’m okay with that.

##Why All the Crappy Movies & Books?

I studied film for several years in undergrad. One day I realized that film/media studies makes you hate movies, and ruins your creativity – people end up focusing on inane revisionist histories like “the usage of white & black in Citizen Kane”. Orson Welles couldn’t have cared less about white/black and what it could convey – his cinematographer was drunk or high and just shot what looked cool. When I realized what a bitter, cynical cliche those classes were making me, I dropped the studies. To detox I started watching awful movies for a few years – and it finally worked – I actually enjoy watching films now. Sometime around 2005 I played around with exporting Netflix and Amazon histories into blog entries, and trying to do 1 line summations. Some worked, some didn’t.